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8th August 2024
ThursdayReflection
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'Jeremy Myers offers'
RedeemingGod.com
Away with Anger
Ephesians 4:26-27
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In The Screwtape Letters, a little book written by C. S. Lewis, a demon by the name of Screwtape writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood, on how to be more successful at tempting human beings.
In one letter, Screwtape advises Wormwood that if he wants to keep his assigned human on the road to hell, the best method is with little sins or even actions which are not sin themselves, but which are of eternal significance.
Satan, who is the Father of lies, has deceived us into thinking that little lies don't matter.
A little bending of the truth. A little twisting of the facts.
But these little, insignificant "half-truths" lead us deeper into greater and bigger lies, and ultimately, away from God, the Father and source of all truth.
Ephesians 4:26-27 considers the sin of anger.
"Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
Is Paul telling us to sin? No.
Biblically, there are two kinds of anger.
The first kind of anger is righteous anger.
This is the kind of anger we can have toward sin and evil that is in the world.
So when God gets angry at the damage and destruction caused by sin, this sort of anger is not sinful in itself.
But there's a danger with this type of anger, especially when we humans try to have righteous anger.
For humans, because we are sinful, because we are selfish, because we do not see everything and know everything as God does, righteous anger is very difficult, if not impossible, for humans to maintain.
For humans, when we get angry, even if we feel that our anger is righteous anger, our anger usually turns into unrighteous anger.
Human anger usually degenerates into sinful anger.
This unrighteous, sinful anger is the second kind of anger.
And it is this kind of anger that Paul wants us to get rid of.
To see these two types of anger in contrast, let's look at an event in the life of Moses.
He was one of the most righteous and humble men who has ever lived allowed righteous anger to degenerate into sin.
He led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and to the foot of Mount Sinai.
Then they went up to the Promised Land, and although they could have entered then, the people did not believe that God could provide for them, and so they instead wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years.
But Moses took it all in his stride.
And frequently during those 40 years, when the Israelites continued to show a lack of faith, Moses often interceded for the people of Israel.
But then, right near the end of his life, right before they entered the Promised Land, Moses had had enough.
In Numbers 20 we find the Israelites complaining and murmuring about the lack of water, and so God told Moses to speak to a rock that was nearby for water to come out of it.
But Moses, who was at this point righteously angry at the Israelites, let his anger get the best of him.
He spoke harshly to the Israelites (which they deserved) and out of anger, struck the rock with his staff rather than speak to it as God had instructed.
And what was the consequence of letting his anger get the best of him?
Moses was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land when they finally arrived.
Anger, when it gets away from you, exacts a terrible price.
So you need to be careful when you are righteously angry at sin.
Because we are not God, righteous anger is very difficult to identify.
Nobody who is angry ever feels that their anger is unjust, right?
As humans, we are always able to justify our anger.
We always feel that our anger is in response to someone else's sin.
We always feel that we are righteously angry.
Think about it.
Have you ever been angry when you didn't think you had a right to be?
Maybe sometimes, but most often, when we get angry at someone or something else, we think that our anger is righteous anger.
We think that we are standing up for what is right.
That we are on the side of justice.
So when it comes to anger, it is best to leave it up to God.
Yes, we will get angry, which is why Paul says "Be angry."
And yes, when the Holy Spirit is in us, we recognize that bad and terrible things happen in this world, and when we see these things, we will get angry.
But if we are not careful, this anger will quickly turn in to sin, which is why Paul goes on in the rest of Ephesians 4:26 to tell us that when we are angry, we must make sure we do not allow it to turn into sin.
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This is an extremely edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
Hi! I'm Jeremy Myers.
I write books, teach online courses, lead a discipleship group, and publish podcasts about Scripture, theology, and following Jesus.
I was a pastor numerous years before becoming a prison chaplain. I have degrees from Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary.
At RedeemingGod.com, I seek to help you follow God in a more relational way by liberating Scripture and theology from the shackles of religion.
I want to help liberate you from bad ideas about God ... I seek to redeem your picture and understanding of God.
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